Thinking About Welcoming an AFS Exchange Student?

Now’s the time! Sharing daily life with a teenager from another country and culture is a rich and rewarding experience, and it’s a wonderful way to bring more understanding into the world. If you’ve ever thought about welcoming an exchange student into your home and family, now’s the time to learn more. AFS, the leading international high school student exchange program, needs families in our community to host high school students for an academic year or six months. Students arrive in August.

All kinds of families can host—One of the most important characteristics of a host family is being eager and excited to share your life and activities while providing the same kind of care, support, and comfort as you would to your own child or family members.

AFS students come from more than 60 countries and represent many different cultural
and socioeconomic backgrounds. Interested in learning more about the Muslim culture?
Want to learn more about Iceland? Think that a German student would be comfortable
in your home? Students from these countries and more will be arriving in August. Local
volunteers support students and their families to help both gain the most from their
experience.

Students have been hosted through AFS for over 50 years in Cedarburg, Mequon, Port
Washington and Thiensville. Cem Cemci from Turkey was hosted in Port Washington
and is now the sending coordinator for AFS Turkey. Peter Kwele an AFS student from
South Africa in 1990, went on to become the ‘Bob Uecker’ of South African soccer and
was one of the event organizers of the 2010 World Cup. “ An AFS year is life changing
for students and families alike. The world expanding opportunities are unlimited.”
Said Karen Nelson, AFS Area Team Coordinator and former host mom. “We think
that politics, ecology and food might be the most we could learn about, but statements
from students are the most eye opening. ‘everything is so GREEN, from a boy from
Hong Kong—the roads are so SMOOTH from a Bosnian boy. ‘can I ride my bike to
Milwaukee? from a Danish girl. ‘does it get much colder? From an Indonesian girl
during a September soccer game.’ We learn so much that we didn’t even know needed to be taught. “

To join the fun
Anyone interested in learning more about hosting or volunteering with
AFS should visit www.afsusa.org or call 1-800-876-2377. Locally, please contact Karen
Nelson.

About AFS
AFS is a worldwide, nonprofit organization that has been leading international high
school student exchange for more than 60 years. Each year, AFS-USA sends more
than 1,400 US students abroad, provides approximately $3 million in scholarships and
financial aid, and welcomes 2,500 international high school students who come to study
in US high schools and live with host families. More than 6,000 volunteers in the US
make the work of AFS possible.